Tag: Diet

Working From Home

Working from home has its many ups and downs, but if done right it can be a highly fulfilling way to work. How!? How do I do it!?

‘The Routine’

Routines aren’t just for morning people. I once read that human beings have a certain amount of mental energy during a given day and no more. After that energy is exhausted, they feel drained and slog their way the finish line of their beds. Many highly successful people cite this as the reason they work under such stringent routines. Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs have/had a way of wearing the same thing every day. That’s one less decision to make. It’s what the New York Times called Decision Fatigue. I eat the same thing for breakfast every day, only opting to switch every six months or so. That’s one less decision for me. Find your routine to get started and stick to it.

‘The Diet’

When I work outside the home, I often eat out at restaurants because it’s easier in many ways. This, however, is not a healthy way to live your life. Working from home, I’m able to make healthy meals whenever the mood strikes me. This does wonders for the waistline and for the pocketbook. (Does anybody actually have a pocketbook anymore?)

‘The Loneliness’

Yes, working at home often means working alone. Yes, that sounds scary to those of us who are extroverts. Luckily, the internet is, apparently, a ‘thing.’ Skype, Slack, Trello, Asana, and countless other pieces of software (often made or owned by Google) make working from home a little less lonely. But what if you’re a creative type who works alone? No person is an island, as cliche as that is. Making relationships with other people that do the same thing as you is extremely important, if for no other reason than to squash that feeling of loneliness.

‘The Cabin Fever’

Go to the gym. Keep in contact with friends. Don’t fall into the trap of sitting around in your pj’s and watching daytime television while doing your work. You’ll accomplish more if you get dressed in the morning as though you’re going to work and prepping for the day. Keep fit. Keep social.

Working from home can be a blessing and a curse, but by stacking the deck you can make it highly fulfilling. Do you work from home? What do you do to keep sane and produce?

This Christmas wearable technology is a hit. Soon, millions of people will be monitoring how many steps they take each day, their heart rate, and numerous other metrics. It is an exciting time for health enthusiasts everywhere. But what if this enthusiasm is misplaced?

With the role of government expanding into healthcare more and more each day, it seems only a matter of time before those metrics are no longer just for the user, but used by insurance companies to determine rates, healthcare providers to monitor health, and the IRS who is charged with oversight of Obamacare.

For full disclosure, I wear a Fitbit Flex myself and I love its functionality. I find it makes me walk more and I’m probably healthier as a result. With growing rates of obesity in America one could argue this wearable tech is a godsend for the sedentary. Let’s go one step further. Wearable tech could also extend to body cameras on police officers. Already in the United States there are millions of security cameras and their rate of growth is exploding. We are obsessed with this sense of security, even though being surrounded by cameras doesn’t make us safer. We could still get mugged or killed in the street, and all that those millions of cameras will do is help the police catch the killer. It seems we forget that we’ll be dead. This issue of police officers wearing cameras is a hot-button topic right now, and my opinion aside, I wonder what you, the reader, thinks about how it would affect our safety.

In relation to fitness trackers, is it good that Americans are beginning to take a deeper interest in their health? Absolutely. Is it possible that there will be unintended consequences to this trend? I think so. In ten or twenty years I believe insurance rates will be based on permanent health trackers and will fluctuate monthly based on your workout and diet trends. Corporations and Government entities will have far more access to our lives than we ever thought possible and the worst part is, we’ll welcome it with open arms because of the facade of safety.

Personally, I’ll still wear my fitness tracker as long as its statistics remain my own. I’m in great health already and work out because I love to. This era of big data and constantly monitoring metrics isn’t going anywhere, and I bring up this topic because I think everyone should think about the implications of how we’re changing society. Will the world we live in ten or twenty years from now be more or less free than today? How many freedoms are we willing to give up to live longer and be safer, even if those goals end up being fiat in nature?